The Journey

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.
~Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty

The quotation above best describes "The Journey" by Maxine Kumin. In the poem the narrator is the mother talking to her thirteen year old girl about the other world she will be going through. Mothers have historically fulfilled the primary role in raising children. Being one is an outstanding and an extraordinary role a person specifically a woman could have. Having a child inside her womb is not and easy job. Keeping and caring for it in nine long months is quite amazing. This may also explains why a mother wanted to have extra care to her child. She wanted to double secure her child, she could not afford to see her child suffer. She wanted her to grow and to raise her child/children the way she did it to them. The mother and child has this invisible threads that connect them which is a partly different bond compared to the father. The mother gives the unequivocal love for her child.

Motherly acts is apparent in the poem, the mother equips her child towards her journey to a completely different world. Inculcate to her the realities that would cloud her as she continue to venture through life. The use of symbolisms added also to the poem's creative presentation. The mentioning of how the gods behave and the swan which means how men can be alluring and mischievous is one I liked most.

The poem also is so into my interest because I can relate to it. It reminded me of my mom's so-called "litany" when she tells me what is right and wrong, what is supposed to do and not to. I now understand why this is so. Every mother wanted whatever is good for her child. It is like a fulfillment on her part seeing her child/children grew the way she wanted and planned. Remember the famous line; "Mother knows best."